Sharing this on the basis that otherwise it may not get a viewing outside the usual circles…. but it is on the Department of Health website. 

The Department of Health has today announced £4 million to improve diagnosis for millions of patients with a range of conditions. Put simply, we don’t have enough good evidence about the diagnostic tests which work on patients and why; nor do we have a very robust approach to the methodology for gathering this evidence.

So the four Diagnostic Evidence Co-operatives (DECs) announced today will enable us to get better at both.  They will be based in London, Leeds, Newcastle and Oxford.  Conditions covered (depending on the centre) include: cancer, cardiovascular and stroke, musculoskeletal, liver, renal and infectious diseases.    The Oxford one will also be looking at the use of diagnostic tests in primary care and ‘at home’ settings, reflecting the fact that more medicine is being delivered close to home

As with all NIHR initiatives the application process will have included a review of the applicants’ approach to public involvement.  This is an arena in which the research partnership with patients and the public can be very rich indeed, in using patient insight to develop tests that accommodate people’s lives and disease experience rather than expecting it to be the other way around.